Listen to Portishead’s Third, plus some initial thoughts

Thanks to Overstreet for this tip: you can listen to Portishead’s Third, in its entirety, courtesy of Last.fm.

Meanwhile, AngryApe has this to say about the album:

Lets cut straight to it, has ‘Third’ been worth the eleven year wait? Well, yes, just about. ‘Third’ is a great record that, like Portishead’s previous outings, takes a dozen listens before you even begin to enjoy and understand how its beauty, complexity, subtleness and dense layers combine to create the mystifying whole you’re trying to deconstruct.

I’ve think I’ve listened to the entire album about twice now, thanks to various online outlets (e.g., Last.fm, MySpace), and I have a feeling that Third will be to 2008 what Scott Walker’s The Drift was to 2006. Granted, Third is quite a bit more accessible and listenable than The Drift in just about every way, but like The Drift, I have feeling that Third will cast a shadow that looms large over everything else I hear this year.